Time

Something we lack.

And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but its sinking
And racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in the relative way, but youre older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death
A verse of the song "Time" by Pink Floyd

Only 41 days to go before we celebrate James' first birthday.
Only 26 days to go before we get to see Lee Evans live in Sheffield.
Only 11 days to go before we sign the contract of the house.
Only 5 days to go before my band plays the Woodstock aan de Maas Festival in Rotterdam, Holland.
Only 3 days to go before my mom's birthday.
Only half a day to go before this one's over.
Only 6 hours to go before I see James & Cate again.

So much time. And so little time.
It sometimes gets me. But then it lets go.
Good. Because time has to move... from time to time.

Have a nice day... while it lasts!
:-)

New Layout + Some news!

A new blogitem, together with a completely new blog-layout.
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Short newsflashes for July:
- James had chickenpocks! He endured them bravely; he's now better than ever! (making walking gestures, nodding no, and blow-spraying his slobber allover you when you encourage him :-)

- The house we bought will finally be ours on the 5th of September! Hooray, we've ruined ourselves hurrah!

- I put our band's website in a new jacket: http://www.crosstowntraffic.be

- Crosstown Traffic played a showcase for the Woodstock aan de Maas festival last Thursday; on our (new) website you can find the recordings of the complete 30 minute concert. (also on YouTube by the way... :-))

- I still like Opera.

- I had a one week holiday in July, and I feel I could do with another one...

I ♥ Liège

Saturday James went to Oma & Opa in Aartselaar. Since he's hoarse for the moment, my mum and dad would have a quiet time.. for once :-)

Then Cate & I drove down to Russeignies, where David & Sandra live, to drive to Liège together with our new drummer, Hans.
After a good 2 hour drive we arrived at the centre of Liège city, and were welcomed by the very very warmhearted host of the youth hostel, Sébastien. The first gig of the evening was already playing (a tribute to Noir Désir, a for us unknown French band, but seen as the whole crowd was singing along like mad, we realised our musical knowledge does have it's limitations), which forced us to unload our gear and transport it right across the front of the stage, towards the backstage area... (Something Cate really was looking foreward to :-p).

During the whole evening we were treated like heroes. It's really incredible how the people in the south of our country are so much more hearty and warm, compared to those in the north... We were on cloud nine.

The second band, a Red Hot Chili Peppers tribute called Coffee Shop, started playing around 21h15; I made some pictures of them here.
Being a local band, they had the biggest audience of the evening (about 500 people), and played a bit longer than foreseen, but that's ok.
During their gig I did a LIVE interview on Walloon radio N°1: BelRTL
You can listen to it here. Be warned: It's all in French... :-)

Finally, at around 23h30 it was time for us to play our gig. The 200 people that had stayed, cheered like they were still with 500, and we had a sound on stage like a CD was playing: a fantastic job of the sound engineers! We played more than an hour, and our rendition of Voodoo Chile turned out to be more than 15 minutes long! The sound engineer also recorded the last 40 minutes of the gig on a portable recorder, and he'll send me the mp3's when he's transferred them to his pc. (I'll then post a link here as well, so you can have a listen :-)
UPDATE: They posted a small movie on YouTube (the start of our concert) here!

A fantastic day, in a marvellous setting, with beautiful people... If only every Crosstown concert could be like this. :-)

End of part I

Yesterday things got a bit out of hand... in my band.

D (the guitarist) and me had been discussing (for quite a long time already) what we should do with our Jimi Hendrix Tribute band Crostown Traffic. The motivation to rehearse and look for gigs had dropped to an alltime low; we weren't really happy with the availability and quality of our drummer Fanio; etc...
So last weekend we made the decision: The drummer we'd been rehearsing and jamming with for another project, Hans, would become the new Crosstown drummer.
Now find a way to try and get that message to Fanio in a decent manner...

Well... we failed.

As the organisers of a festival (where we'll play the 21st of June, in Liège) posted a poster on our myspace with our name on the band-list... our ex-drummer Fanio went beserk.
An understandable reaction, I guess, because we didn't get the chance to talk to Fanio properly about his (non-existing) future with Crosstown Traffic before the poster was posted...

A few dirty mails later...

A mixed feeling again... but it'll be alright...
I guess being 'kicked' out of a band is not the nicest thing that can happen to a musician... But wait... haha... No problem there... After all, drummers aren't musicians! :-p

Thanks, Fanio, for 5 years of Crosstown beats. But we have to go on without you now.